


Roses in Concrete

by karfishylicious



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Demigod AU, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Meet-Cute, this is soft ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:00:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28807737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karfishylicious/pseuds/karfishylicious
Summary: When a child of Demeter and a child of Aphrodite kiss in a theater, what do you get?Or, Ant is a shy gardener and Red is pining hard.
Relationships: Antfrost/VelvetIsCake (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 109





	Roses in Concrete

**Author's Note:**

> if you're velvet: please dont make fun of this
> 
> if you're just a fan: hi i hope you like this i just got sudden brainrot and had the impossible urge to write a percy jackson au fic. so enjoy!

The sun was low in the morning sky as Ant walked out of his cabin, a sleepy smile on his face and gardening tools in hand. This was his favorite time of day, before everyone else woke up and he had a little piece of the camp to himself.

His sneakers traced patterns through the morning dew as he made his way to the garden, his lungs filling with the rich smell of damp dirt and fertilizer. His hands buzz with energy as he kneels onto the ground, feeling the plants reaching up to him as if to say hello. Ant smiles again, and gets to work tending to his friends. He hums a little tune as he coaxes weeds up and out, drawing nutrients from the soil into the roots, and as the sun grows higher he wipes his brow with a dirt stained hand and looks out over the field in pride. 

Just before breakfast, Ant steps out of the fence and makes his way to the showers, making a quick stop by his cabin and sneaking by his still sleeping siblings to grab a towel and a change of clothes. As he walks in, still quietly humming, he pauses as he hears a shower already running inside. 

Ant quirked an eyebrow, confused as to who would be up at this time besides him, but he simply shrugs and starts undressing by a locker, lost enough in his thoughts to not hear the shower turn off and footsteps coming up behind him until he hears a, 

“Zeus almighty, how do you make dirt stains look so good?”

Ant jumps and clutches his towel to his front, eyes wide and face flushed bright pink as he turns to look at who spoke. Behind him is a cute boy with fluffy red hair and an eye catching smile, soft skin dripping with water and falling onto the towel at his hips. 

He’s a son of Aphrodite, Ant knows that much. He’s seen him around camp for the past couple years, and they’ve spoken once or twice during camp events, but Ant never had the confidence to even ask his name. But now he stands before Ant, half naked and almost sparkling, and he finds himself at a loss for words. He stands there, gaping like a fish, before the boy giggles and waves a hand in his face. 

“Hello? Earth to garden boy? Are you alright?”

His bright smile snaps Ant out of his reverie and he blushes again, clutching his towel a bit tighter.

“U-Uh… Yeah, sorry, you just… sort of startled me is all. No ones really awake before I am.” Ant mumbles, still sort of entranced by his emerald green eyes. The boy grins and holds out his hand in greeting, which Ant takes hesitantly, surprised at how soft and warm it is.

“I decided to go out for a little swim this morning is all. I’m Red, by the way. Kinda hard to believe it’s been almost six years and we haven’t spoken a word to each other!” 

Ant nods shyly, and uses all his brain power to form a sentence coherent enough to be spoken.

“I’m Ant, It’s… uh, nice to finally meet you Red.”

Red laughs, his nose scrunching, and Ant’s heart scrunches up with it. 

“Ant? Is that a nickname? I can’t really picture anyone naming their kid after a bug!”

Ant bites his lip and laughs softly, taking back his hand and rubbing his arm. 

“It’s a nickname, yeah. My dad gave it to me when I was younger because I would always play with the ants in the garden and give them little crumbs from my sandwich.” 

At this, Red’s eyes light up and his smile is almost blinding, a heavenly giggle coming from his lips.

“That’s so cute! You do seem like the sort of guy to do that, definitely.”

The pair are interrupted by the door to the showers opening once again, a large senior with a tangled mane of pink hair from the Ares cabin making his way to a locker across the room and quickly undressing, ignoring the two other people present.

Red turns back to Ant and gives him a cheeky grin before patting him on the shoulder. 

“I should get dressed and get back to the cabin before they wonder where I am. I’ll see you around, Ant.” 

He gives a wink as he walks away, surprisingly not getting dressed and instead jogging through the grass to his cabin.

Once he’s out of sight, its like a fog clears in Ant’s mind. He shakes his head vigorously to try and get rid of the last vestiges of Red’s glamour, but the flush on his face remains as he finally grabs his shower kit and heads towards the stalls.

~❀♡~

Ant finally has a chance to relax when he sits down at his cabin table, scooting in next to his (admittedly favorite) half sister once he’s sent his daily offerings up to his mom. He mumbles a quick and quiet, “Apple juice, please” to his goblet and watches as it fills up with a transparent golden liquid before finally turning to the girl next to him with a soft smile.

“Hi Niki!” 

She turns and returns Ant’s smile twofold, face as bright as the morning sun when she sees him.

“Oh, good morning Ant! I’m guessing you went out to the garden this morning since we didn’t see you when we woke up. Was everything alright after the storm last night?” She takes a sip from her goblet and a quick bite of her eggs, missing Ant’s eyes as they float across the pavilion to the Aphrodite table where Red sits with his siblings George and someone who Ant thinks is named “H”? He’s pretty popular here at camp, but no one’s ever been able to find out his real name so everyone just calls him H. 

Ant hears a snap next to his ear and he jumps, nearly knocking over his goblet in the process. He looks over and sees Niki with a confused look on her face before he follows his gaze and raises an eyebrow.

“What are you doing, staring at the Aphrodite table? Did something happen?”

Ant flushes and pointedly ignores her question, shoving a couple grapes into his mouth to avoid answering. She stares at him with a knowing grin and just crosses her arms, waiting for him to finish eating.

Ant swallows hard.

“Uh, the garden was fine. They were a little windswept and rattled but I helped them strengthen their roots to keep growing as normal.”

Niki gives him a look, and Ant bites his lip shyly.

“You never even bother with Aphrodites kids, Frosty. Did something happen? Do I have to go beat one of them up for you?”

Her tone makes Ant laugh, his embarrassed composure relaxing, knowing he can’t really hide anything from her. He sighs and takes another quick glance over at the Aphrodite table, only to find he’s meeting eyes with Red himself, who looks surprised at first but his expression quickly morphs into a flirty smirk. 

Ant’s eyes widen and he quickly looks away, the little bit of glamour he managed to catch making his eyes just a little unfocused as his heart races. Niki frowns and glares over Ant’s head, trying to see what happened, but Ant just pulls her down and shakes his head.

“Don’t. They didn’t do anything to me, just…” he trails off as his mind supplies him with the feeling of Red’s warm hand on his shoulder, and Ant feels his face start to burn.

“Just what? Ant, you’re acting very strange, are you alright?” Niki asks, voice concerned as she rests a calming hand on his back.

“Red talked to me today. When I went to go shower. He talked to me for the first time since we’ve been at this camp and…” His voice turns to a whisper and he leans in further, “I can’t stop thinking about him, Niki.”

She bites her lip in thought before giggling a bit to herself, patting Ant’s back and sitting up to continue her breakfast.

“Whats so funny?” He asks, a bit hurt that she laughed and brushed it off.

“Frosty, if you could have seen the way you’ve looked at him when he’s in the arena, you’d realize you’ve been thinking about him for longer than that.”

~❀♡~

As the day progressed, Ant was looking more and more towards his free time just before dinner. His mind had been a mess all day, and he just wanted to return to his garden at the edge of the forest and let his mothers power take control. It got to a point where, when he was doing battle training with his friend Dream from the Athena cabin, he kept messing up basic stances he had mastered years ago. 

Worried about him getting hurt, Dream sent him on his way for an early break, which Ant took with a grateful hug as he quickly returned all of his battle gear and made his way to his cabin. He grabbed his sunhat and waved a quick hello and goodbye to a couple siblings who were just about to end their own free time, and made his way to his special place.

His hands and knees are covered in dirt, and his face sweaty from exertion, but Ant’s mind was finally clear for once, his mothers gift taking all the focus he could muster. Since the beginning, Ant had always loved gardening with his father. He owned a flower shop in their hometown, and every day after school Ant would walk to the store and help his father.

He was always in charge of making sure the flowers grew nice and strong and bloomed beautifully, and under his care they always did. Ant’s favorite thing to do was find plants that had a wilted leaf or two that had gone unnoticed for too long, and watch it turn green and healthy once more once he whispered little words of encouragement to them. It wasn’t until he turned 12 that he found the reason behind his secret power, and his father had to send him off to camp for the summer so he could be safe and learn how to use them better. 

He’s 17 now, almost 18, and his powers have definitely grown stronger. He’s one of the best gardeners in his cabin, and once Phil became head counselor he was granted access to a plot of his own where he could plant whatever he wanted. It instantly became his favorite place in all of camp, one where he spent the majority of his free time. He helps the dryads in charge of cooking for the camp, giving them most of the fruits and vegetables he grows. He grows flowers and healing herbs for the Apollo cabin, supplying them with extra stock in case they ever run out. He’s been begged by a few kids from the Dionysus cabin to grow some, uh, fun plants, but he quickly declined to, much to their chagrin. 

As Ant is busy trying to coax a withered and shaken up sweet potato back to life, he hears a sudden creaking noise just outside his garden, and he quickly looks up to see what it is.

What he finds is Red himself, leaning against Ant’s wood and wire fence, with a soft and friendly smile on his face. Instantly, his head becomes fogged and his heart starts racing, but something in it seems unnatural, forced even. Ant shakes his head, trying to rid himself of the glamour, and he whines.

“L-Listen, I know you’re the son of Aphrodite, but could you please.. Ah… turn down your powers or something?” He looks up at the boy with a flushed face, and is surprised to see him embarrassed as well. Almost as quickly as it arrived, the fog lifts and his heart slows to a normally excited speed, and Ant sighs in relief.

“Oh, I’m… I’m really sorry. I can’t really help it when I see s-” He freezes and his face turns about as red as his hair, “I can’t really help it is all. That’s it.” He huffs and starts to compose himself, dusting off his nice looking jeans and tshirt before going back to being as casual and suave as possible, which makes Ant laugh softly to himself at the charade.

“Soooo… What are you doing over here? Talking to plants I assume? Most Demeter kids do I guess…” Red trails off, obviously a bit lost for words as he stares out at the many boxes of soil around Ant. 

“Actually I am, believe it or not!” He giggles, missing the way Red’s eyes light up at the sound. “Would you like to join me? This sweet potato is just having a little hissy fit, maybe you can charmspeak it back to health, hm?” Ant gives the boy a grin, which just grows wider when his face turns pale at the suggestion.

“Uh, my charmspeak isn’t as good as George’s, and I’m not that good at just normal gardening anyways-”

Ant rolls his eyes and hops back onto his feet, opening the gate to his garden and dragging the boy inside, despite his protests against his muddy hands. He leads him over to the place he just was, and kneels down on the ground, motioning for Red to do the same. He shakes his head nervously, and Ant sighs.

“Oh for the love of Zeus, just sit down. A little dirt isn’t going to ruin your clothes.”

Finally, he relents, and winces as his knees hit the loose dirt next to Ant. He turns to Red with a proud smile, and once again misses the way his cheeks flush a bit at the sight when he turns back to the poor tuber.

“Ok, so what you want to do is put your hands on the dirt just around the stem, and sort of try to tell the plant to come back to life really. It sounds hard but as long as you stay gentle, I’m sure it will listen.” He takes Red’s soft, warm hands and guides them to the dirt, ignoring his pained noise as he places them where they need to be. 

“Now, try to put your energy into your hands and send it into the soil, telling the sweet potato to not give up on itself!” Ant explains, watching the boys face as it scrunches up in concentration. 

Suddenly, the leaves start to turn greener and stiffen up more, and Red gasps as the plant grows and grows and breaks through the soil. Ant’s eyes widen in shock, and his heart skips a beat at the sight of pure joy on the other's face. 

“What- how- Did I do that? Just by charmspeaking a potato?”

Ant quickly takes his hand out of the soil and brushes it off without Red noticing, and nods with excitement. As Red is looking around in awe at the giant sweet potato, Ant notices his half sister coming down the hill and making her way to his garden, and he stands up to let her inside. 

“Hey, I just-”

“Ant! Do you mind if I take this potato to show my cabin mates? They’ll never believe what I did if I don’t!” 

Niki cocks her head to the side in question, and Ant flushes slightly and shakes his head. ‘Hold on,’ he mouths, and turns back to the wide eyed son of Aphrodite still marvelling at his work.

“Sure, just pull it out by the greens and take it with you. I’ll replant a new one later.”

He hears a loud  _ riiip! _ As the tuber is tugged from its roots, and Red stands up with the vegetable in his arms, cradling it like a newborn baby. Niki laughs at the sight, and he looks up from his creation with bright eyes. 

“I charmspeaked this potato to be huge! Isn’t that cool!” Niki is speechless as Red walks past her and Ant, making his way back to the cabins. “I’ll see you at dinner, Ant! Thank you for teaching me!”

Ant gives a small wave goodbye as the boy jogs over the hill, and turns back to Niki with a sheepish look.

“No way in Tartarus did a child of Aphrodite grow something that big with charmspeak, Frosty. What gives.” She crosses her arms and leans against his fence, an expectant look on her face.

“Weeeellll….” He starts off, scratching at his neck. “I might have given the poor thing a little extra boost, just so he wouldn’t feel bad.” He shrugs his shoulders, and Niki laughs and shoves him playfully.

“Come on, silly. Let's get you cleaned up before dinner, I’m sure Mr. Schlatt wouldn’t want you to get soil all over his nice clean pavilion.”

This makes Ant laugh too, and the pair walk home together, telling each other about their day as the sun begins to set on Camp Half-Blood. 

~❀♡~

As Ant steps into the Amphitheater, the warmth and smell of the roaring campfire fills his whole body. He waves goodbye to Niki as she goes to sit next to her friend Fundy from the Hermes cabin, and he goes to find an empty spot to sit by himself.

It’s a normal occurrence for Ant, and he’s come to love just sitting alone and quietly singing along with Wilbur and Alex, leaders of the Apollo cabin. The pair seem unlikely friends, and Ant knows they bicker a lot, but he can tell their bond goes deep. He watches as Wilbur pulls out his guitar and starts strumming random notes, warming up as the theater slowly fills up with campers.

Ant leans back a bit in his seat and stares up at the dark night sky, the twinkling lights and occasional flash of a meteor mesmerising and beautiful. He gets a bit lost in the sight, and doesn’t notice someone has sat next to him until he hears a subtle cough, jerking him out of his trance. He turns to the person, and is a bit surprised to see no one other than Red, all cleaned up from their- date? Special time alone? - whatever they had in Ant’s garden earlier. Theres a soft and shy smile on Red’s face as he not-so-subtly scoots a bit closer to him, and he looks up at the sky that Ant was just watching.

“You know, sometimes I look up there and wonder if my mom is watching me. It seems kinda dumb, cuz, shes a goddess and I’m just one of her many children walking around the earth willy nilly, but… I wonder if she’d be proud of me. Of what I’ve done and learned all the years I’ve been here.”

Something in Ant’s chest warms, and its not from the fire. He hesitantly reaches out and places his calloused hand on Red’s softer one, running his thumb across his knuckles.

“I get it. I think she’d be very proud of you, Red. There’s no one out there quite like you.”

Emerald eyes meet with blue ones, and it doesn’t even register that he’s leaning closer until Ant finds his lips on Red’s. It’s soft, gentle, and it makes the warmth bloom even hotter. 

People describe their first kisses as sparks and fireworks, but it doesn’t really do the experience justice. It’s as if the whole world stopped, and all the energy surrounding the both of them became supercharged. His heart pounds so hard he can feel it in his ears, and he’s almost sure Red can hear it too. 

After what seems like hours pass, they pull apart, and Red’s face is as flushed as his own. Ant looks down at their intertwined hands and finds… roses? About 6 of them had pushed through the stone through sheer force, and had bloomed around the pair. Ant giggles, which soon turns into a full blown laugh, and when Red finds the persistent flowers he follows suit. They cling to each other in laughter, that slowly dies down as they come down from the adrenaline of the kiss. 

The fire seems to sparkle in Red’s eyes, and he gives a cheeky grin before wrapping his arm slyly around Ant’s waist, turning back to the sing-along and letting Ant rest his head on his shoulder.

“Now I know my mom is watching me, because how else would I be so lucky to have you next to me?”

Ant’s heart skips a beat, and as he jumps onto Red’s lap to kiss him again, whatever song the campers are singing below fades into the night, with promises of the best summer yet to come.


End file.
